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In a house in Thailand authorities found kangaroos, five tigers, 13 lions and two albino orangutans and other species

BANGKOK, March 9. – More than 200 animals, including kangaroos, five tigers, 13 lions albinos and two orangutans were seized by police in a private zoo inside a house in the central region of Thailand, local media reported Wednesday.

The agents, in an operation yesterday against illegal animal trafficking, also seized flamingos, red pandas, camels and lions at the residence of a former salesman of animals in the province of Saraburi.

The head of the operation, General Norasak Hemnithi said they located the zoo through the investigation of a network of illegal animal trafficking.

The owner, Yutthasak Sutthinon, has been accused of keeping protected animals without permits, which carries a penalty of up to four years in prison.

Yutthasak said he has relevant documents to be submitted later and explained that the red panda, albino pumas and lions come from Africa, Canada and South America.

A growing number of African and Iranian Traffickers are incorporating in the Asia-Pacific Region, and have become one of the largest production and trafficking centres for synthetic drugs, the UN said today in a report.

“In addition to the threat of organized crime endemic region, the report draws attention to the increasing reach and presence of transnational criminal groups” in Africa and Iran, said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, for short in English).

The report on the trafficking of synthetic drugs in 2010 found an increase in African groups, using Cambodia as a center for financial operations, China, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand.

However, the majority of synthetic drugs are produced locally in the region, with major centers in China, Burma (Myanmar) and the Philippines.

Gary Lewis, head of UNODC in the Asia-Pacific, said that the countries of East Asia require more resources to stop the trafficking of methamphetamine, which last year reached 136 million tablets seized, compared to 32 million 2008.

“We must be more active on all fronts to help the countries of the region to prevent the dangers of the South and East Asia will become the largest producer of illegal drugs,” said Lewis in a statement.

According to the UN office, the manufacture of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and amphetamine are replacing from the 90 to plants producing heroin and cannabis that have proliferated in the region in previous decades.

In 2010, the largest seizure of these synthetic drugs in China was 58.4 million pills, followed by Thailand (50.4 million) and Laos (24.5 million).

In total, 442 factories were dismantled methamphetamine and amphetamines last year in East Asia, five times more than in 2006.

Of the 15 countries the report methamphetamine use decreased or remained in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines and Korea, while it expanded in Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam.

The UN warned that drug design, in cases such as Indonesia have overtaken the use of hashish, not only pose a serious security problem and crime, but also a serious danger to public health.

I would hope that this becomes a new project for the newly elected Prime Minister of Thailand. PM Yingluk Shinawatra, to care about your people is to gain respect, love and a sense of accomplishment. Remember the love of your people is based upon what you can do to help them. The rich and the elite will fade away, but the common people will always remain.

“Thailand faces significant challenges as a source, transit and destination country,” said the UN expert at the end of her 12-day mission to Thailand from 8 to 19 August 2011.

“The trend of trafficking for forced labor is growing in scale in the agricultural, construction and fishing industries,” said Ms. Ezeilo. She also found that “internal trafficking in children is rampant,” particularly highlighting the vulnerability of migrant, stateless and refugee children, including those belonging to hill tribes, to trafficking and exploitation.

While commending the enactment of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2008 in line with relevant international standards, the Special Rapporteur warned that the implementation and enforcement of the law remains “weak and fragmented”,often hampered by the deep-rooted corruption, especially among low-cadre law enforcement officers at provincial and local levels.

Observing the vulnerabilities of migrant workers and their families to all forms of human trafficking, the UN expert pointed out that “root causes of trafficking, particularly demands for cheap and exploitative labor provided by migrant workers, are not being effectively addressed.”

The Special Rapporteur also expressed concerns about the frequent misidentification of trafficked persons as irregular migrants subject to arrest, detention and deportation, as well as long stays at shelters by victims of trafficking, turning the shelters into “detention centers and a vehicle for violations of human rights, especially the right to freedom of movement and to earn an income and live a decent life.”

Ms. Ezeilo urged the Thai Government to promote zero tolerance to corruption and to scale up capacity building trainings for all actors, especially the law enforcement officers, immigration officials and labor inspectors. As a prevention measure, she called on the Government to review its labor and immigration laws and to increase safe migration options in order to eliminate the vulnerabilities of migrants to trafficking.

The increasing popularity of “ernai,” or mistresses among wealthy men is emerging as a problem in Chinese society, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Amid the rapid development of the country’s economy, large numbers of those fortunate enough to enjoy the prosperity are having affairs with mistresses, making it the symbol of the rich. “Keeping a mistress is just like playing golf,” a man told the New York Times concerning the issue, adding “both are expensive hobbies.” Those seeking such liaisons offer lavishing apartments or cars as well as monthly allowances.

However, the public is angered by the trend. Chinese prosecutors believe about 90 percent of governmental executives accused of corruption have mistresses, sometimes more than 10.

In December a government employee allegedly murdered his mistresses and abandoned the body in a river when she asked for $3 million in return for putting an end to the relationship.

Zheng Beichin, a lawyer who had defended a mistress, told the New York Times “the nation’s elite, including judges and government officials, have little desire to tinker with the status quo.” Meanwhile, a similar phenomenon exists in Korea covertly under the name of “sponsor contract,” where rich men give money and a home to women in return for relationships.

Whilst, this sounds so innocent on the outside, it is rather malicious and immoral. Marriage, is supposed to be, between a husband and his wife, which does not include a Mistress. This is know in the free-world as adultery, and grounds for divorce in many countries. Yet, in Asia it is rather the norm. Does this mean that Asian Women or incapable of maintaining the loyalty and fidelity of their husbands, or is this simply, an indication that the husbands are free to roam the streets and pick up whatever is walking around the sidewalks? Perhaps I should say whatever is hanging out in the Hotel Bars or is provided by some Escort agencies.

Perhaps this is an action for alienation of affection which, does not require proof of extramarital sex. An alienation claim is difficult to establish because it comprises several elements and there are several defenses. To succeed on an alienation claim, the plaintiff has to show that the marriage entailed love between the spouses in some degree; the spousal love was alienated and destroyed; and defendant‘s malicious conduct contributed to or caused the loss of affection.

It is not necessary to show that the defendant set out to destroy the marital relationship, but only that he or she intentionally engaged in acts which would foreseeably impact on the marriage. Thus, defendant has a defense against an alienation claim where it can be shown that defendant did not know that the object of his or her affections was in fact married. It is not a defense that the non-innocent spouse consented to defendant’s conduct. But it might be a defense that the defendant was not the active and aggressive seducer. If defendant’s conduct was somehow inadvertent, the plaintiff would be unable to show intentional or malicious action. But prior marital problems do not establish a defense unless such unhappiness had reached a level of negating love between the spouses. And this is a mouthful to digest.